Better Strangers
by Sauerbraten
Summary: Jonathan Crane has always believed that Edward Nygma was trying to sabotage him. He didn't realise that it was for a completely different reason than he'd thought.


This time he knew Nygma would get the message. A trusted henchman showing up to the office with the bloody carvings of a time and location in the bruised skin of their back; only an idiot would miss that.

Jonathan definitely didn't think of his rival as an idiot, no one in Gotham did, but it often took the man some convincing to come out of his hideout. It was no secret that the genius would be holed up in his hideout for weeks on end, surviving on red bull and sleepless nights. Given that he had received no hassle from the man for the past month, Jonathan presumed a half-dead henchman would be enough to coax him out.

He had prepared himself well for the meeting. The entire afternoon was spent cleaning his guns, polishing a trusted serrated knife, and dusting off a specific vial of fear toxin that he'd been saving for a rainy day. As the sun began to set he had set out his weapons on his office desk, not intending to use them but rather using them to intimidate.

All that was left for him was to pace around his office until the other man arrived, which didn't take long.

"I'm genuinely surprised to see you", Nygma beamed as he swaggered in through the door with his hands shoved casually into his pockets. Jonathan only quirked an eyebrow at him as the green suit-clad man slumped in an empty seat without invitation.

"I mean, come on Crane, that was such a Zsasz move I didn't think I'd be seeing you here instead"

He found himself to be unimpressed by Nygma's mood. He had gone to such lengths to carve that message. To prepare his desk to resemble enough weaponry to power a small militia. To instil fear into his rival. Then here Nygma was lounging about completely unafraid.

"You'll wish it was Zsasz here", Jonathan glared deadpan from behind the desk, fighting his annoyance at the innocent head tilt Nygma gave him. The man rarely took things seriously, Jonathan didn't expect him to change for this evening.

"Why so angry Crane?"

"Don't start playing games with me Nygma"

"Oh but its so fun"

He let annoyance seep into his sigh, and the man sat before him rolled his eyes.

"What do you want then?", Nygma said with a more serious tone, "What have I done this time?"

"You don't realise? A man of your intellect? I'm surprised", Jonathan hissed at him with sarcasm dripping from his voice. Nygma only scoffed.

"If you're trying to get revenge then do it already, I've got three guns on me right now so grab one of your fancy pistols over there and let's have a good old-fashioned shoot out"

Jonathan paused, his mind stilled for a moment. He had no patience to humour Nygma's stupid denial game, knowing that he'd have to spell it out for the other man.

He'd rather forget everything about the previous week, when he personally went down to one of his warehouses to check how smoothly his latest operation was running. He had been in the middle of shouting at one of the stupid goons for letting Nygma's men move product through Jonathan's trusted port when he had heard a soft hiss. That was his only warning before the entire warehouse was launched into chaos. It took him seconds to realise it wasn't a toxic gas. It took him a few more seconds to notice that the gas was able to affect him even with his own built-up immunity to the various gases produced in Gotham. More seconds and he realised it was an aphrodisiac.

That was after he had shot the henchman that had grabbed him to shove a tongue down his throat.

"So you admit to doing wrong then?"

"You've got to be more specific with what I've done wrong, Crane", Nygma's smirk returned. Jonathan felt his nostrils flare as he breathed in sharply.

"You stole one of Ivy's stupid aphrodisiac poisons didn't you?"

Nygma didn't reply, opting instead to smile and fold his hands behind his head.

"Did you seriously try to flush me out of my own turf with such a stupid plan?", a venomous tone crept into Jonathan's voice. He felt the Scarecrow lurking somewhere inside his head, egging him on to just grab a gun from the desk and plaster the opposite wall with Nygma's brains.

Nygma's continued smug silence did nothing to calm the Scarecrow's growing rage.

"I didn't realise you were such an idiot", Jonathan hissed. Nygma's smug exterior faltered, and his face twisted in disgust.

"Don't you dare call me an idiot when it was you and your trigger finger that turned your own men into plant feed", Nygma jabbed his finger in Jonathan's direction.

"That was your fault in the first place", Jonathan glared back, "I killed Dmitri because of you; one of my best and I killed him"

"Why?", Nygma replied nonchalantly, snapping back to his smugness that it almost gave Jonathan whiplash. Jonathan watched him pick at his nails, faking innocence and failing greatly at it.

"Excuse me?"

"Why did you kill him?", Nygma was looking directly at him now.

"You already know clearly", he sneered defensively. He knew Nygma probably hacked into the surveillance cameras to watch his little project play out, letting him see everything as it happened.

"Crane", he fixed a stare at the scientist, "You can't honestly tell me you killed a man because he kissed you"

Crane only winced in response. He was trying his best to forget the moment his henchmen had turned on each other; and him. His immunity to toxins making him completely sober as he experienced another man's

Nygma laugher and leaned back into his seat.

"I could psychoanalyse you to death", he said in a teasing tone.

"I know you're after my territory, and trust me you aren't getting anywhere near it", he said, "No matter how many damn potions you steal from Ivy, I'm not scared of you Nygma"

Nygma kept quiet again, refusing to speak but rather only hold his smirk. Jonathan felt the rumblings of the Scarecrow again and fought back on the urge to kill. The silence stretched out as they stared at each other; but the second Jonathan looks away he can hear the grin slide back onto Nygma's face.

"How good was he then?"

"Excuse me?", Jonathan splutters.

"Your guy, Dmitri you said, was he any good?"

"You better choose your words carefully right now Nygma"

"Or what?"

A hot flash ran up his spine at the challenge behind Nygma's words. He tried not to dwell on whether it was from anger or something else. Nygma's tone was loaded with something Jonathan didn't want to think about; something Jonathan did his best to forget thinking about after every time he spent lingering in a hot morning shower. His eyes drifted down to the legs of the man before him, clad in tight green suit trousers. Jonathan's mind briefly flickering to images of himself between those thick thighs before the Scarecrow forced him back to sanity.

 _Ironic_.

"Stay out of my territory, do you hear me?", Jonathan felt himself heating up as he tried to clear his thoughts as quick as possible.

"Whatever, I have more important things to be doing, so I'll see you round", Nygma pulled himself up out from the chair and span round to head towards the exit.

"Nygma, promise me"

"Later, Crane"

"Edward!" he exclaimed as he stalked after the man. His hand reached out and slammed the door shut before Nygma could leave.

"Wha-"

The other hand shoved Nygma up against the door, knocking the wind out of him. Jonathan tried not to think about how close they were, realising that he was less than centimetres away from the other man.

"Listen to me carefully" his face drew menacingly close to the other man's personal space, "That message I sent you was only the beginning, I can do so much worse to the rest of your henchmen. And maybe to you too"

To his dismay, Nygma only laughed harshly at him.

"What makes you think I'm threatened by you?", he smirked with eyes that flashed dangerously.

"Because you know I can cause you so much pain that you'll be begging me to kill you"

Again, the other man chuckled darkly, Jonathan felt Nygma's breath tickling his cheek.

"It takes more than someone like you to scare me"

Jonathan felt a foreign hand slide around the back of his neck. He flinched at the touch of surprising soft skin on his own. But he held the glare.

"Why is your hand on me?", he said bluntly.

"I could say the same about you and your hand on my chest", Nygma teased. His thumb lightly traced circles on Jonathan's bare neck; a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

"Nygma", the taller man warned but to no avail as he felt the thumb dip below his collar.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? Shoot me?", Nygma gave him an innocent smile.

"You don't even deserve that", for a few moments the Scarecrow bubbled up to the surface and Jonathan let him, "I'll tie you down and skin you alive"

"Maybe I'm into that"

"E-Excuse me", Jonathan choked on his words, taking back full control from the Scarecrow again.

"You heard me, maybe I want you to hurt me", he leaned closer with a dark grin, "Maybe I want you to _punish_ me"

Nygma suddenly laughed at him. Maybe it was the absurdity of being so close to the other man taking over, but Jonathan felt his stomach drop at the sound.

"You're so shocked! If you could see your face", the redhead giggled.

Jonathan felt himself going red as Nygma's hair again for the millionth time that evening.

"I-", he tried to reply but he could only think about the foreign breath ghosting his face dangerously close to his own lips, and his fist balled up against Nygma's chest.

"What's wrong with you? Have I scared you?", Nygma teased with a low voice.

With that Jonathan felt anger again.

"Nothing about you scares me"

"Are you sure about that?"

He felt Nygma's hand move to his hip in challenge; and he almost jumped out of his skin. Jonathan was determined to remain unfazed, even though he felt his hip burning up like his face under Nygma's fingers. He pulled together all he had to keep his voice from creeping up to a higher pitch.

"You aren't as intimidating as you think you are, Nygma"

"You aren't intimidated?", the hand slowly sliding down to spread along Jonathan's ass.

"No", he managed to choke out as he felt Nygma's hand squeeze.

The red head moved in even closer and Jonathan shuddered, feeling that breath now against his lips.

"Prove it"

Without thinking, Jonathan felt himself lean in to press his lips against Nygma's; drawn in almost magnetically. It was soft, light, and oddly tender as the disgraced scientist found his grip against the other man's chest loosen. For a few seconds he felt strangely vulnerable. He wasn't sure if he didn't completely hate the feeling or not.

He leaned back, surprised at himself. Somewhere in the back of his head he could hear the Scarecrow shrieking at him. _Good_ , he thought, _the asshole deserves it for the last time he took over_.

A tsk sound brought him out of his daze.

"As I thought", Nygma scoffed as his hands dropped away from their grip, "all bark and no bite"

The redhead's smirk was gone, eyes narrowing in disappointment. A surge of annoyance took over Jonathan and he crashed his mouth back down in anger. A hand moving to grab at Nygma's hair while he pushed his tongue between the other man's teeth. The redhead hummed in appreciation, opening up to let the kiss deepen. His arms wrapped themselves around Jonathan's shoulders, fingers tugging loosely at the shirt fabric.

Without warning Jonathan shoved himself away, a triumphant gaze roaming over a wide-eyed Nygma.

"Now get out", he almost bellowed at Nygma. His glare followed the flustered redhead bolting out the door, and relaxed when he was left alone in the room.


End file.
